[287] The existence of this inscription makes the destruction of this catacomb under Pius IX. the more extraordinary.
[288] Dyer's Rome, 70.
[289] Ampère, Hist. ii. 10.
[290] Ampère, Emp. i. 184.
[291] Pliny, H. N. xxxv. 37, 2; and 49, 4.
[292] Dyer, 111.
[293] Dyer, 211.
[294] It was close to this temple of Hercules that the bodies of Sta. Symphorosa and her seven sons, martyred under Hadrian ("the seven Biothanati"), were buried by order of the emperor. Sta. Symphorosa herself had been hung up here by her hair, before being drowned in the Tiber.
[295] Dyer, 113, 115.
[296] Ampère, Hist. Rom. iii. 198.